Detectives have revealed how they are battling a new breed of super smart crook as crime continues to move online.

Northumbria Police’s head of crime, Det Chief Supt Lisa Orchard, has admitted that cyber criminals are continually creeping one step ahead of officers as some of the biggest brains in Britain discover crime can pay if they use their intelligence to make more money on the wrong-side of the law.

But the force is now fighting back. And after investing heavily in its digital forensics base and staff, police are warning cyber criminals that the technology they use to commit their crimes could be the devices detectives use to snare them.

Lisa Orchard, Head of Crime at Northumbria Police

Det Chief Supt Orchard said: “Whatever type of crime we have it just seems the criminals evolve to overcome the barriers the law enforcement agencies put in their way. Criminals are moving with the digital age so we have to do that as well.

“We are now, in the police service, far more robust. We have invested locally in people and technology to try and keep up with the game. But I don’t think we will ever be ahead of the game as these people are very intelligent.

“These people can make more money through crime than they could in the business sector. We are definitely getting a new type of criminal.”

In response to the huge rise in cyber crime Northumbria Police has invested in a new digital forensics lab at Byker Police Station.

And the cell block has been converted into an ultra secure evidence storage space, with hard-drives and devices now occupying the cells that once held offenders.

But police across the UK have quickly discovered that they can’t fight cyber crime alone. Their teams are now made-up of civilian staff, many recruited as graduates or after working in industry, as well as police officers.

And Det Chief Supt Orchard explained it was essential that police now open their minds to the academics and people in industry who can help take on the cyber crooks.

“What we are doing on a national basis is liaising with academia to help us solve the problems. We are working with various universities and trying to tap into the virtual communities and try to engage with them,” she said. “These are the people we need. We need to tap into their knowledge and use that to fight crime.”

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All types of crime are moving online as we live more and more of our lives through the internet and mobile phones.

But perhaps the most frightening in the growth in the number of predatory sex offenders who will use the internet to target youngsters.

“I think what we have seen with the internet age and the digital age is lots more crimes that are digital related. There has been a huge lift in indecent images and grooming online. But also things like fraud and identity fraud,” Det Chief Supt Orchard continued. “Paedophiles are underground. They are not out there in society, whereas before we would have seen them physically.

“The difficulty we have got is how much is out there and we are just starting to uncover it. The scale of it has surprised me.”

But as police continue to use all the knowledge skills and tech available to them to fight cyber crime, they are also desperately searching for a way to help people keep themselves safe online.

Det Chief Supt Orchard fears the safety messages that have been issued to young people and their for many years now just aren’t getting through.

And she believes many children continue to make themselves vulnerable with the amount of information they share online.

“The police, schools and lots of different agencies are doing a lot to try and educate children and young people about the dangers but it just doesn’t seem to be getting through,” she said. “We need to look nationally at what we can do about this. Parents really don’t understand the risks. We historically talked a lot about ‘stranger danger’ and that was effective. But what is not understood is their child can be in the next room talking to a paedophile without knowing it. We need to educate the parents as well as the young people. I really think a lot of people don’t see it as the real world and they just don’t understand the inherent dangers.

On Saturday police joined representatives from the North East’s creative, digital and IT sector and universities to work together to find solutions to the problems of staying safe online at he Cyber-Wellbeing Solution Hack event.

It is hoped some of the concepts created will be developed into real-world technologies and used by teachers and parents in schools and homes across the country in the future.

The theme of cyber crime has also been the focus of research by students from Northumbria’s Multidisciplinary Innovation Masters course, with a team of six recently undertaking a three-month project exploring the subject.

They focused specifically on teenagers, looking at current educational practices and the different habits, behaviours, perceptions and awareness between young people, teachers, and parents around cyber crime.

Their research uncovered a number of key challenges that will feed into the Cyber-Wellbeing Solution Hack and inform potential creative solutions. During a similar event recently held by the students, ideas generated included a coding challenge, a computer game and a regional competition, all designed to raise awareness of cyber security amongst teenagers.